U.S. Trophy Team solidly in second, while Juniors hold division lead

Day 5 of the FIM International Six Days Enduro was another good day for both the U.S. World Trophy and U.S. Junior Trophy teams as they both advanced on their nearest competitors.

Day 5 of the FIM International Six Days Enduro was another good day for both the U.S. World Trophy and U.S. Junior Trophy teams as they both advanced on their nearest competitors.

Both teams posted the top overall scores for the day, with the U.S. Trophy Team solidly in second place at 10 minutes, 33 seconds behind France and 53 minutes ahead of Spain in third. The U.S. Junior Team now leads second-place France by 1 minute, 45 seconds in the Junior division with Australia in third 5 minutes, 45 seconds back.

According to U.S. Team Manager Antti Kallonen, both teams have to be “cautious” going into the final day and the final motocross test.

"Plenty of countries have gone into the final day of Six Days with what appeared to be a win or a podium finish only to have disaster strike when something goes wrong," Kallonen said. "We are in a similar situation with both of our teams as the U.S. Trophy Team only has five riders remaining after loosing Zach Osbrone on day 1. So even though we have a huge cushion over third-place Spain and essentially a huge amount of time to make up on France [for first], we still have to finish the day with all of our riders."

The Junior team has a bit more margin for error.

“The U.S. Juniors still have all of their [four] riders [giving them a throwaway score heading into the final moto], but they have a smaller cushion to work with France just a minute and 45 seconds behind," he said. "They should be all right as long as they ride smart and only race at 80 to 90 percent of their ability. Sometimes that’s hard to do as a racer because for some of them every time they put on a helmet they just want to win, something we are discouraging them from doing at this point to guarantee the championship."

U.S. Trophy Team rider Taylor Robert posted the fastest net test times for day 5, winning the overall for the day.

"Today was finally my day," Robert said. "It’s been a tough week for me. All week my test times have been right in there but my overall score was ruined when my engine wouldn’t start [at the end of day 3] and I lost 9 minutes going into the last check.

“Then, because of my bad finish for the day, I had to start the next day back in 54th place, and that made it interesting as I had to deal with traffic at each of the tests," he added. "But by [this morning], I had worked my way back up to the second row, so things went much better today.”

Day 6 of the Argentinean Six Days has a short schedule with a one hour “road ride” out to the final motocross test where individual classes will compete in a traditional timed grouped motocross heats to determine their final test times.

U.S. Trophy Team rider Taylor Robert won the overall for day 5. Robert is now in the 12th overall despite losing 9 minutes when his engine one not start on day 3 after his air filter failed.

U.S. club team rider Joshua Knight races across a sand wash during the second special test of the day.

U.S. Junior Trophy Team rider Grant Baylor rides up a ridge on day 2. Baylor and his teammates are in first place ahead of the French Junior Team by 1 minute, 45 seconds going into day 6.

U.S. club team rider Alexander Lehr.

U.S. Trophy Team riders Kailub Russell (left) and Taylor Robert take a break at a day 5 service check.